BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 749 (Wolk) - Habitat protection: endangered species.
Amended: April 16, 2013 Policy Vote: NR&W 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 749 would allow lease revenues generated on
lands managed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to be
used to manage those lands, make changes to the procedures for
listing threatened and endangered species, extend the sunset
date on accidental take provisions, and encourage the
enhancement of upland nesting cover and associated habitat.
Fiscal Impact:
Cost pressure of up to $1.7 million for lost revenues to
the Wildlife Restoration Fund.
Ongoing costs approximately in the low hundreds of
thousands of dollars from the Fish and Game Preservation
Fund (special fund) for increased DFW responsibilities when
reviewing whether a candidate species should be listed under
the California Endangered Species Act.
Ongoing costs approximately in the tens of thousands of
dollars and cost pressures in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the Upland Game Bird Account (special fund) in
the Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
Background:
Lease Revenues- Existing law allows DFW to lease
department-managed lands for certain activities. Lease revenues
are required to be deposited in the Wildlife Restoration Fund,
which is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Board, where it
may be used to acquire lands and construct facilities suitable
for recreation and adaptable for conservation, propagation, and
utilization of fish and game resources. The Wildlife Restoration
Fund cannot be used for land management.
Endangered Species Act- Existing law establishes numerous
procedural provisions in the California Endangered Species Act
that pertain to the scientific review, the contents of the
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administrative record, ground rules for public participation,
and the conduct of public hearings that may be involved in a
decision by the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC).
Existing law allows "accidental take" of a candidate,
threatened, or endangered species that occurs in the course of
routine and ongoing agricultural activities until January 1,
2014.
Upland game birds: Existing law requires a hunter to obtain an
upland game bird stamp before taking any upland game birds, such
as doves, sage grouse, wild turkeys, and quail. Stamp revenues
are deposited into the Upland Game Bird Account and are
available for expenditure, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, for the acquisition of land and projects that will
benefit upland game bird species and expanding public hunting
opportunities. An advisory committee exists to review and
provide comments to DFW on all proposed projects to be funded by
upland game bird stamp revenues. For the past three years, stamp
revenues have been approximately $1.4 million annually.
Proposed Law:
Lease revenue- This bill would allow, but not require, DFW to
use lease revenues for the operations and maintenance of the
lands which the lease revenues were generated.
Endangered Species Act- This bill would:
Require DFW to seek independent scientific peer review
of the status report it prepares in order to indicate
whether a listing is warranted. This provision would
sunset on January 1, 2017.
Extend the sunset date on the allowance of accidental
take of listed species in the course of routine and ongoing
agricultural activities until January 1, 2020.
Allow the FGC to close the public hearing and
administrative record of a hearing to consider a petition
to list a species, except under specified circumstances.
Upland game birds- This bill would:
Require DFW to identify which department-managed lands
should be managed for the purpose of restoring and
enhancing upland nesting cover and associated habitat. The
upland game bird advisory committee would be required to
annually solicit comments and recommendations from the
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public regarding management of these lands.
Prohibit a state agency from penalizing a landowner or
imposing conditions on a water transfer because of
evapotranspiration by vegetation that grows naturally
without irrigation.
.
Staff Comments: Lease revenues- In December 2012, the Bureau of
State Audits (BSA) found that a supervisor with DFW improperly
implemented an agricultural lease agreement. The supervisor
directed the lessee to use state funds derived from the lease to
purchase $53,813 in goods and services that did not provide the
improvements and repairs the lease required. In addition, the
supervisor required the lessee to provide the State with $5,000
in Home Depot gift cards. This finding triggered a broader
review by DFW of its agricultural leases and grazing permits
that found "systemic violations of the law" with the grazing and
agricultural program. The review is still underway. According to
the director of DFW, lease revenues should have generated $1.7
million. However, lease revenues deposited in the Wildlife
Restoration Fund were less than $300,000 in FY 2011-12.
Both the Assembly Budget Sub-committee #3 and Senate Budget
Sub-committee #2 have identified that the statutory requirement
for lease revenues to go to the Wildlife Restoration Fund have
fueled the inappropriate actions in the grazing and agricultural
program because DFW is severely underfunded for their land
management costs. Both subcommittees have directed DFW to
provide a proposed statutory amendment to allow lease revenues
to be used directly for management of leased lands. Should final
budget action be taken on this matter, this portion of the bill
will either need to be removed or amended in a manner consistent
with the budget action. Staff notes that lease revenues are
considered General Funds.
Endangered Species Act- This bill would add a requirement that
DFW's status report to inform the listing of species under the
Endangered Species Act be subject to independent peer review.
This requirement would create additional workload to receive the
peer review then to modify the status report based on the peer
review. Given that there are five candidate species as of
January 2013 and assuming that the peer review requirement would
require at least the workload equivalent of a 0.25 PY, staff
estimates that the increased workload will likely have costs in
the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. Staff notes that last
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year the Legislature passed AB 2402 which among other things,
created the Science Institute within DFW. One of the purposes of
the Science Institute is to promote peer review. It is unclear
whether the Science Institute can help reduce the costs
associated with this peer-review requirement.
Upland Game Birds - DFW would incur costs under this bill to
identify which department-managed lands should be managed for
the purpose of restoring and enhancing upland nesting cover and
associated waterfowl habitat. Once these lands are identified,
there would be additional cost pressures for providing those
management costs. Staff estimates that identifying the
appropriate lands would cause a one-time work load increase in
the high tens of thousands to low hundreds of thousands and
ongoing cost pressures in the hundreds of thousands.